Snow white and the heavenly course
For some, it’s the only way to travel – the carriage gliding quietly along smooth tracks, wine in hand, the scenery within touching distance.
The TranzAlpine railway through New Zealand’s Southern Alps is one of the country’s most memorable journeys.
But after the biggest snowstorm in years blanketed farmland and mountains alike, the trip became one through a winter wonderland.
Passengers queued in Christchurch yesterday morning, three days after the front made its way through the city. Some planned the trip specifically after the snow fell.
By the time the train pulled out, the skies were clearing in Canterbury as expectant tourists and locals alike prepared for the four-and-a-half-hour journey.
Within an hour, the ground around the carriages was thick with snow, tourists crowding the windows and viewing carriage, cameras in hand.
As the mountains grew, so did the smile on Thai tourist Sompong Boonnon’s face.
‘‘When we saw the snow for the first time we felt very relaxed and very happy, like something from the heavens fell to the earth, a dream come true,’’ he said.
‘‘I have to say, your country is very beautiful, don’t move anywhere else, just stay here.’’
Snow-flattened reeds and weigheddown matagouri shrubs lined the tracks for long stretches between the 15 tunnels and four viaducts the train traverses on its way to Greymouth.
The train stopped in Arthur’s Pass for five minutes, just enough time for giggly travellers to scoop up a snowball or two from the half a metre of snow which was still settling alongside the train track.
A somewhat smug Kevin Keenan sat snug in his driver’s chair at the front of the locomotive.
‘‘You can see mate, she’s quite a buzz. What’s better than going past and seeing all the trucks parked up,’’ he said, acknowledging the days-long closure of State Highway 73.
‘‘This is clearly the best way to transport.’’
The highway reopened yesterday morning, after being closed since Tuesday due to snow and ice.
Keenan had been driving trains for 20 years. There was nothing else he would rather do, he said.
‘‘Especially when you get weather like this, it’s a pretty good view out the office window.’’
The eight-kilometre-long Otira tunnel marked the end of the snow, the West Coast spared from the worst of the weather.
But for Boonnon, the memories of the snow would last a lifetime.
‘‘We would like to make a snowman and take a picture and take it home to tell everybody, ‘hey, we touched snow one time in our life’.’’
‘‘You can see mate, she’s quite a buzz. What’s better than going past and seeing all the trucks parked up. This is clearly the best way to transport.’’ Kevin Keenan